Asajiu no ono no shinohara shinobu to mo hito shirurame ya iu hito nashi ni - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

浅茅生の小野の篠原しのぶとも
人知るらめや言ふ人なしに

Roma-ji: Asajiu no ono no shinohara shinobu to mo hito shirurame ya iu hito nashi ni
English Translation: On the moor of Ono
where the low reeds grow in fields
of bamboo grass
though I love in hidden longing
could she know, with none to tell
Meaning: Like the bamboo grass on the reedy moor of Ono, I love in secret; but could the one I love know it, when there is no one to tell her?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 505

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Taking as its preface the bamboo-grass fields of a moor overgrown with low reeds, the poem laments that however secretly one loves, the beloved cannot know without someone to carry word. The preface, leading from shinohara to shinobu through their shared sound, impresses the loneliness of a love hidden from others' eyes. The poem by Minamoto no Hitoshi in the Gosenshu, "On the moor of Ono / where the low reeds grow, I hide my love / yet why does it overflow," takes this poem as its source and is also included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "On the moor of Ono": asajiu means a place overgrown with short reeds, presenting a desolate moor.
Second line, "where the low reeds grow in fields": ono is a field and shinohara a meadow of bamboo grass; lines one and two form a preface leading through sound to shinobu in the third line.
Third line, "of bamboo grass": shinobu to mo means even if I endure and love in secret.
Fourth line, "though I love in hidden longing": hito shirurame ya means "would she know? surely not," and the poem pauses here. It is the same phrase as the second line of the preceding poem, 504, continuing the theme of love unknown to others.
Fifth line, "could she know, with none to tell": iu hito nashi ni means with no one to tell her, giving the reason for the fourth line afterward in an inverted structure. Like "if no one tells her" at the end of poem 485 of this book, it laments the lack of anyone to carry word of love.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Waga koi o hito shirurame ya shikitae no makura nomi koso shiraba shirurame
Next Poem: Hito shirenu omoi ya nazo to ashigaki no machikakeredomo au yoshi no naki